College of Idaho lifts campus lockdown after concerns over armed individuals

Campus safety officers parked outside a College of Idaho building on Monday afternoon as those on campus sheltered in place during a campus-wide lockdown.
Katy Moeller

College of Idaho officials lifted a campus lockdown around 2:30 p.m., according to an incident report on the college’s website.

The campus was on lockdown Monday afternoon after two individuals dressed in black reportedly brandished a handgun at a female student in a campus parking lot around 12:45 p.m., according to an email sent by campus safety officials.

College of Idaho spokesman Joe Hughes explained more about the incident that led to a lockdown on the school's campus Monday afternoon.

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A banner on the Caldwell school’s website around 1:30 p.m. urged those on campus to shelter in place and warned others to avoid traveling to campus.

An email from assistant director of campus safety Ben Mosley sent around 1 p.m. said safety officials “received a report of two individuals dressed in dark clothing possibly pointing a handgun at an individual in the JAAAC parking lot.”

“The individual was able to drive away and the suspects ran away from campus,” Mosley wrote.

C of I is updating information on the incident here. In a statement from C of I President Bob Hoover,

Mosley said campus safety officers and Caldwell police were patrolling the area. A Canyon County emergency dispatcher said local law enforcement had received a report of an armed individual on campus, but said reports were “unfounded” as of about 1:20 p.m.

“The College has been rehearsing and updating our emergency procedures for over a decade and I am pleased at the moment, or until I learn differently, how well the emergency procedures were followed and calm was restored on campus,” C of I President Bob Hoover said in a statement.

Classes are not in session Monday due to the holiday, though the school had several Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events scheduled, including a forum on gun control scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

“Nothing we have have learned shows any connection between the incident and the scheduled forum,” Hoover wrote, “and the incident took place on the opposite end of campus from where the forum was scheduled.”